Introduction to the Design

Design Problem

Instagram’s saved boards are functional but lack visibility and engagement. Users can save and group content, but the feature often feels hidden and underutilized, limiting its potential as a tool for inspiration and collaboration.

User interviews revealed that 100% of participants valued collaboration and organization, yet 4 out of 5 were unaware that Instagram already offered collaboration features.

Goal

My goal was to enhance Instagram’s saved post feature with collaboration, customization, and gamification to increase user engagement and organization.

Offer better organizational tools to enhance users' interactions.

Create a new avenue for social interaction where users can co-create mood boards with friends, family, or even followers, deepening the platform's sense of community.

HMW Questions

How can we design a space within the Instagram experience that allows users to gather, organize, and personalize their inspiration, making it easy to use and navigate without feeling overwhelmed?

How can we enhance our features and tools to create a collaborative experience through gamification, increase app usage, and encourage user engagement?

POV Statement

Users face the challenge of lacking customization and personalization within apps like Pinterest. Users often feel overwhelmed by inspiration platforms like Pinterest due to their limited customization options. As a result, they frequently switch between apps to organize their ideas. Instagram’s existing tools don’t fully support this need.

Users generally value collaboration with friends and family, especially when gathering inspiration and ideas. Without these tools, the process becomes less enjoyable, leading users to use different platforms that support collaboration.

Insights Gathered

Competitive Analysis

Studying Pinterest, Canva, and Tumblr highlighted gaps in Instagram’s approach — especially in social interaction and gamification. Pinterest is great at inspiration collection, but lacks community engagement. These insights shaped my decision to combine organization with playful features.

Strengths

Visual Discovery and Inspiration Platform
High Purchase Intent Among Users
Robust Search and Recommendation System
User-Friendly (easy to navigate)
Wide range of features
Collaboration/Communication Tools
Creative Freedom
Strong sense of community
Niche Content

Weaknesses

Limited social interaction
High Dependence on Advertising Revenue
Challenges with User Retention and Growth in Certain Markets
Customization options limited
Advanced features cause a learning curve
Performance Issues
Fewer opportunities for creators to monetize their content
Content Moderation Issues
Declining User Base

User Interviews

Two users don’t save content consistently, often using temporary methods like open tabs. Four users were unaware that Instagram allows collaboration on saved boards. Participants sought meaningful ways to share, such as with friends or in group planning, to highlight gaps in discoverability and engagement.

Total: 5 Participants

Four are Designlab students with different experiences.
One was not in the web design world, but they use Instagram a lot.

Common Themes

All participants use or have used Pinterest.
Customization, organization, and collaboration are key priorities.
Most didn't know Instagram has collaboration features.

Pain Points

Frustration with Pinterest’s limited customization/personalization.
Trouble saving or keeping track of inspiration.
Poor visibility of collaboration tools on other platforms.

User Interview Key Questions

What apps do they use to organize their inspiration?
What do they use Instagram for?
Challenges Faced

Affinity Mapping

Grouping insights revealed a key theme: collaboration and sharing challenges. I prioritized this in the design, adding features for tracking progress on boards and unlocking achievements to motivate sharing and increase engagement.

Piecing the Puzzle Together

User Persona

Two distinct personas emerged:

The Creative Collaborator — wants to build shared boards with friends for projects and events.
The Inspiration Organizer — saves ideas solo but enjoys tracking progress.

These personas ensured the feature balanced collaboration with individual use.

Project Goals

The goal of this project was to design a feature that addressed user pain points around collaboration and organization while fitting seamlessly into Instagram’s existing ecosystem. By aligning user needs with business objectives and technical feasibility, the feature aimed to improve visibility and engagement without disrupting familiar patterns of use.

User Flow

I redesigned the flow to surface collaboration early, placing entry points in highly visible locations. This directly addressed the “hidden feature” problem and reduced the clicks needed to start a shared board.

Bringing Ideas to Life

Low-Fidelity Wireframing

To make the collaboration and mood board feature more visible, I created a new icon that represents collaboration and placed it in a natural, prominent spot next to the menu icon on the profile page. This placement ensures users can easily notice the feature without cluttering the interface, addressing the main insight from user interviews that many participants didn’t even realize Instagram offered collaboration on mood boards.

High-Fidelity Wireframe

After mid-fidelity testing, I refined navigation cues, added a “Collaboration Meter” for engagement, and ensured visual consistency with Instagram’s patterns. These changes made the feature feel like a natural extension, not an add-on.

Refining the Journey

User Testing

Participants completed three tasks: saving inspiration to a collaborative board, unlocking achievements, and using the collaboration timeline.

Feedback indicated that saving posts and unlocking achievements were intuitive; however, some users were unsure how to return to the Trip Plan page or skip badge sharing. Comments included: “I didn't like how it was manual. I'm not sure I'd have known to click on that part of the screen to collect an achievement if I wasn't asked to do that specific task.”

I updated the prototype to make navigation more straightforward, allowing users to leave achievement pages, skip badge sharing, and access collaboration tools more smoothly.

Collab Board

Three participants had trouble finding the collaboration board, especially on the feed page.
One participant misunderstood the "+" button for adding images and suggested adding image recommendations under the board.
One participant found the second part unclear.
One participant said navigation would improve with practice.
Three participants found the rest of the process easy and intuitive.

Unlock Achievement

Three participants found unlocking achievements easy, but suggested clearer button designs and improved profile visibility.
Two participants found collecting achievements to be unintuitive or too manual.
One participant had issues with navigation, requiring multiple attempts to return.
One participant suggested underlining the "View Achievement" button to make it look clickable.

Collab Timeline

Four participants found the task easy and smooth to complete.
One participant completed it efficiently but suggested renaming the filter to something clearer, like "Change View" or "Change Timeline View."

Iterations

-Underlined “View Achievement” to signal clickability.

-Added skip/exit options for badge sharing to improve control.

-Renamed “Filter” to “Filter by” for clarity.

-Added active state feedback for “Today” view to improve orientation.

Final Design Mockups

Key Takeaways

Challenges Faced

During interviews, some users questioned the need for this feature, noting that Instagram already had a board-saving feature. Initially, this made me doubt the concept. But critique sessions reminded me: features don’t have to be new to be valuable — they have to solve the problem better. That perspective unlocked my next iteration.

Lessons That Shaped Me

This project reinforced that designing for awareness can be as impactful as developing new tools. I learned to maintain brand consistency while incorporating new UI elements, and to prioritize design based on user evidence.

Evolving as a Designer

I came away with stronger skills in integrating features into existing ecosystems, designing for discoverability, and navigating conflicting user perceptions. Most importantly, I learned to defend my design decisions with research-backed reasoning.

Explore The Prototype

All - Valueserve - Pawfection - Instagram - LovePlan

Adding A Feature To Instagram

Collab & Collect: A Fun Way to Save on Instagram

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